Will I embarrass myself?

[hdskull]

Yea, like everyone else said, don't worry. You're not losing anything, your life isn't dependent on this. Going to the competition will give you a chance to see how amazing the amazing are, and how you can become the next amazing cuber. Many people actually beat their personal best times at a competition!!

@ cubetimer: I have already registered for SD 2008 also! see you there!

 

[Hadley4000]

Are white DIY cubes allowed? I think I heard someone say that only black cubes are allowed, but my white one is my best. So is that true?

 

[Mike Hughey]

No, white cubes are definitely allowed. Any color is allowed, as long as they're not transparent.

But don't leave stickers off on one face so you can have a white face - all 6 sides need stickers. (I remember a guy at the US Open with a white cube with no stickers on one side - he got chastised for that.)

 

[Hadley4000]

Why aren't transparent allowed?

 

[Bounb]

3i) No modifications are allowed that enhance the basic concept of a puzzle. Some examples of enhancing the basic concept are: new moves are possible, normal moves are impossible, more colours/pieces are visible, moves are done automatically, more or other solved states.

Transparency means more colours/pieces are visible.

 

[hdskull]

Mike is right, all sides must have stickers.

I really don't get why transparent cubes aren't allowed either, the time for me to "see through" the piece would be enough for me to solve the entire cube...

 

[SkateTracker]

I was also wondering the same thing, my times are about the same as yours, except I average 35 seconds on the 3x3. I might consider going to a competition after reading this. What do you have to pay to get in?

 

[AvGalen]

I was also wondering the same thing, my times are about the same as yours, except I average 35 seconds on the 3x3. I might consider going to a competition after reading this. What do you have to pay to get in?

That depends on the competition. Some are free, others are between 5 and 15 dollar

 

[ROOT]

im still new to this site but i had my first comp a couple weeks ago(princeton). i had a 22 second average, but no one made fun of people who did get slower times than they do. dont worry yourself, have fun.

 

[brunson]

Thanks to this thread I've decided to compete in the Denver Open. I posted a 45 second average on the Sunday Contest last week, but I hope to have that down below 40 for the Open. We'll see.

Thanks for all the (indirect) encouragement.

 

[pcwiz]

Why aren't transparent allowed?

Transparent cubes aren't allowed because you can sort of see through the stickers and cube and see the back face. Then you can "see" the back face without looking at it. It's not going to help you much but it might so they don't allow transparent cubes.

 

[Hadley4000]

Why aren't transparent allowed?

Transparent cubes aren't allowed because you can sort of see through the stickers and cube and see the back face. Then you can "see" the back face without looking at it. It's not going to help you much but it might so they don't allow transparent cubes.

I tried one at Chattahoochee(Someone brought one). I tried to see through, but was harder to look through than to just solve.

 

[pcwiz]

Well as I said before, you can barely see through it, but you can, so that's why they ban them.

 

[pjk]

Thanks to this thread I've decided to compete in the Denver Open. I posted a 45 second average on the Sunday Contest last week, but I hope to have that down below 40 for the Open. We'll see.

Thanks for all the (indirect) encouragement.

Great, looking forward to seeing you there.

 

[Feanaro]

I went to the Chattahoochee competition and I didn't win of course, but some people there had some slow times. They knew that but still went to just have fun. Besides, those are okay times.

3x3x3 PB: 18.22 sec
3x3x3 OH: 1:17
3x3x3 BLND: 2:55
2x2x2 PB: 7.35
4x4x4 PB: 2:30

 

[kubekid]

I'll think you'll do fine if I went to a competition I would lose by a long shot.

My fastest solving time was 46 seconds. (I use layer by layer) and i've had the

cube for almost a year. I first got a 55 sec average 2 weeks after getting the

cube but kept the same average for 7 months cuz i didn't learn a new

method.

 

[pcwiz]

I'll think you'll do fine if I went to a competition I would lose by a long shot.

My fastest solving time was 46 seconds. (I use layer by layer) and i've had the

cube for almost a year. I first got a 55 sec average 2 weeks after getting the

cube but kept the same average for 7 months cuz i didn't learn a new

method.

A new method will not necessarily get you faster. What makes you faster is practice, and some tricks. Using a new method will make getting faster with practice faster. Some people know the entire Fridrich Method (about 112 algorithms) but they still get a 50 second average. What good is memorizing the algorithms if you don't execute them fast or you pause too much? The beginner method (layer by layer, 4LLL) has been proven to get times of a sub 20 average. Obviously, getting a sub 20 second average with the beginner method is a bit difficult, but it's possible. Learning a faster method will just make it easier to get faster times, but it will not guarantee you to automatically get faster, unless you practice hard and learn tricks and all other kinds of stuff that will help you get faster.

 

[Mike Hughey]

Hey, so I'm not the slowest in the world at Fridrich! (I'm about 30 seconds with full Fridrich.) I was cubing in front of Joshua Satterfield last week (the first time a speedcuber who's faster than me ever watched me solve and commented on it), and his response was that I'm pretty good at doing the right things; it's just that my fingertricks are really bad. I don't do as many as I should, and the ones I do just aren't effective.

I've decided on a plan of attack for improving this - I'm going to start doing the same scramble over and over until I get sub-15 on that scramble (I won't move on to another scramble until I get sub-15 on the one I'm working on). That way, I'll have to work out fingertricks that work reasonably well for that particular scramble. If I do that on enough scrambles, I should be able to force myself to do good fingertricks for most F2L cases (and hopefully improve my OLLs and PLLs in the process). This will be a challenge, though - I'm pretty sure the fastest I've ever done a prepared solve before is about 18 seconds. I may never get past the first scramble!

 

[Dene]

That is an interesting strategy, you'll have to let us know how it goes for you! I've only ever done a prepared solve like that once, and I got sub12. It was good to know that I could move that fast, but I already knew what to do so I was barely even looking at the cube by the end.